Art for company sake . . .

Annecto celebrated their establishment of an office in Coburg yesterday. Local member Kelvin Thomson gave a speech and annecto representatives Ed Sill and Lando Antonelli talked about their community initiatives in the area.

Annecto's mission is to assist people who have a disability or who are disadvantaged and older persons and carers to achieve their goals and enable better lifestyles. One way to establish links within communities is to foster programs that include people like choirs and art groups. These are great ways to bring people together for a few hours each week and to give them a sense of belonging.

The photo above shows Tiziana Contu who volunteered her talent to help a group at the Coburg facility to realise a large wall mural. It certainly brightens up the venue.

Spring (Carnival) is over

The Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival is over and The Cup has a new (long shot) owner. I photographed some different awards last night with some 300 FINSIA (Financial Services Institute of Australasia) graduates stepping up at a ceremony at The Grand Hyatt. Pictured is Kevin Saunders who took away a stack of awards. We'll we sure need his expertise over the next few years to get the economy going again.

Talking to my computer guy Sam up Sydney Road this morning and he tells me that people have stopped spending - they are frightened of what lies ahead and prefer to keep their money in their pocket at the moment. I wish! I upgraded a couple of hard-drives into a server configuration last week at not an inconsiderable expense, and invested in a new dye-sub printer. So I'm on rations until Christmas.

Photographed the EW Tipping Foundation AGM tonight - it is exciting to see the talent and dedication that is in these organisations that provide services for members of our community that need support.

Brother with a Geisha theme . . .

The Melbourne leg of the Brother Roadshow happened on the banks of the Albert Park lake this year with a Geisha theme. There was certainly no "economic gloom" with some 300 keen to see the new Brother products (from sewing to labelling machines with a new multi-function printer with A3 capability the star of the event). Plenty of social happenings with cocktail mixing, a mock Melbourne Cup race, a caricaturist, and games to play.

A couple of nights previously I photographed the punters at the Hardy Bros function to introduce the 2008 Melbourne Cup. There were plenty of people happy to grab a photo of themselves with the famous cup (we printed onsite) and make a $20 donation to the Leukaemia Foundation in the process.

And the weekend was busy with a 50th birthday party and a christening - who said a photographer's life isn't varied and interesting.

It's a great place in winter . . .

Spent last week shooting the annual connective conference, this year at the Sheraton, Port Douglas. I had my head down most of the time shooting images during the conference and social events and producing dvds of the photos that were used as walk-ins to the conference sessions.

I did get the chance to walk on the beach (photo above) for a bit of relaxation after a hectic couple of days. Well, someone had to do it . . .

Throwing Stones

Krystle and Brendon got married on Saturday and had an interesting variation to their wedding ceremony. The wedding was dockside (the reception was on board the cruise boat "Sea Melbourne"). They each had a rock (Krystle's was from her Dad's farm in Western New South Wales and Brendon had one from his family's home country, New Zealand) and they threw them into the water.

There is an ancient Latvian tradition which is often associated with weddings which involves the bride and groom writing their sins on rocks, then tossing the rocks into a body of water, allowing them to start afresh as it were. The practice of transferring a sin onto an object to be discarded is traditional to Eastern European folk remedies, which have a practice of transferring an illness onto an object and destroying it or throwing it away - thus destroying the illness.

We'll, the rock thing was quite cute don't you think? Because Brendon and Krystle were leaving on the boat straight after their ceremony, we did the photoshoot prior to the wedding. Spent an hour in their hotel room with the studio lights and then visited Hosier Lane and Fitzroy Gardens.

It's a small world . . .

The wedding on Sunday was very happy - Sharon and Robby are a great couple. Loved the wedding cake which had caricatures of them both. Their reception at Ballara Receptions in Eltham looked like it would be a fun time. Ballara always impress with their decor and service and the grounds are picturesque.

One of the bridesmaids (pictured) was from Tasmania and it turns out that she lives in Cygnet where I once worked. And we have a mutual friend who still lives in the town.

Cute!

I am having a busy week. Went to a two day Photoshop seminar early in the week and I've got two weddings this weekend.

This shot is from yesterday's wedding down at Rosebud. Heidi and Clint particularly wanted some great shots of the kids. This one was taken using a couple of studio lights. One to light the face and the other to give a bit of a glow to background. Then I've added a vignette.

I hope they will be pleased.